(En)Gendering Sustainable Development

Abstract

Sustainable development will not be possible without a thorough analysis and revision of the gendered dimensions of international development. Gender bias is a universal phenomenon, but it is worse in poorer countries, where development efforts have often led to “underdevelopment”, e.g. increased poverty of the rural poor. In their desperation to survive, women bear more children and deplete more resources in their roles as food, water, and fuel providers. Hence environmental devastation has increased. The skills, values, and needs of women have been ignored because many development planners have too often used a Household Model that assumes male wage earners and female dependents. Men have left their family units for jobs outside their villages, and women’s needs, talents, and concerns about their local environments have been overlooked. The Household Model is in turn a logical outcome of psychological processes underlying sexism. Sexist language, media, attribution, science, and views of nature all contribute to an unconscious patriarchy that leads decision makers to visualize males as more important than females. Given our universal proclivities toward sexism, sustainable development agents must make clear and consistent efforts tofocus more resources on women if sustainable development is to be achieved. Fortunately, there are numerous examples of women-focused development projects that demonstrate successful ways to do so.